The Road Trip To Treffen Bend

Chesapeake Region

The Road Trip to Treffen Bend

By Steve and Marsha Buss

By:Steve&MarshaBuss

Treffen’s are one of our most enjoyable experiences with PCA. Marsha and I live in Maryland and are members of the Chesapeake Region. For the Colorado Springs Treffen at the Broadmoor in late April, we rented a Macan GTS and drove through the Rockies for three weeks. We had a terrific experience. For Treffen Bend we discussed purchasing a Porsche out west and driving it home through as many National Parks as feasible. Once we successfully registered for the event, we began to seriously look for a 981 manual, as we own a 991.2 PDK Cabriolet. After a month of fun research we found our car at Porsche Freemont, CA.

So now we know our point of departure, the San Jose, CA area. We also know Treffen begins in Bend, OR on Wednesday September 14th and the Porsche Boardwalk Reunion in Ocean City, New Jersey begins on Friday October 14th. Our schedule parameters are set. Let the planning process begin.

With laptops and Rand McNally’s spread across the kitchen table, we set out to prepare the quintessential itinerary. Our original plan took us north on the 101 to Washington State. A spectacular drive. But after reviewing the southern route, it made the most sense and with the help of Google and Roadtrippers and our paper maps, we prepared our route to arrive in Bend on Tuesday September 13th. The northern route awaits another trip out west.

On August 29th, we arrived at Porsche Freemont, signed the paperwork and we were on our way. Wait, did we talk about the roomy front and back trunks of this car? All the stressing about packing was just a waste of time. We had plenty of space for our two carryon sized suitcases, a backpack, and 24” duffle bag.

First stop, Yosemite National Park for two days. Wow, so beautiful, very majestic., but it was smoky due to the nearby wildfires and since there has been no rain in months, the waterfalls were reduced to dry granite rock.

We left for the magnificent mountains and scenic views of Mammoth Lake. It was here, in the underground parking garage of our hotel, where we first applied our paint protection film. Special thanks to Mike Holtzclaw, PCA Anchorage, Alaska for passing along his trade secrets and intellectual property to us. 3M Scotch Blue 2” and 3” rolls provide protection from the road debris and bugs.

We left Mammoth Lake saying we need to come back here one day.

On the way to North Las Vegas (the one without a Strip) we drove on a crazy winding road with very tight curves that sometimes you had to slow down to 10 miles an hour. We were on the Westgard Pass, Rt 168 in Inyo California. As we exited the car in Vegas, we felt the heat. It was hot and it stayed hot for another week. I’m talking 110+. So, we planned our longer hikes and adventures for the morning hours.

The next day we arrived at our second National Park on this trip and the first of the Mighty 5 in southern Utah, Zion NP. Vehicles were not allowed so we used the Park Shuttle free transportation to maneuver around the park. Hiking the Narrows or Angels Landing was beyond our ability, but we enjoyed our shorter hikes over lava formations and sandstone formations. And it was hot as Hades, so the hikes were kept short. We stayed in a lovely Airbnb where we had the opportunity to do laundry and cook our own dinners. It does grow old eating at restaurants! We also had the opportunity to do repair work on the PPF. Although that was cut short due to excessive heat and the need for a cold beer.

We left the Zion AirBnB and drove backroads uphill for a few hours to Bryce Canyon NP. We didn’t realize the Bryce reaches heights over 9,000 feet. And yes, it was still well over 105 degrees. Spectacular is the word for Bryce Canyon NP. The enormous Bryce Amphitheater filled with hoodoos of all shapes and sizes is an awe inspiring, incredible view. We hiked the rim trail from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point twice because it was such a gorgeous vista.

On Monday, we left Bryce and headed to Capitol Reef NP via State Road Scenic Byway 12, All-American Road. Wow, what a breathtaking drive! We arranged to stay at the Capitol Reef Resort, next to the park entrance. We were glamping next to the teepees! We parked next to a colorful 356 from Washington State. Capitol Reef NP has dramatic landscapes of bridges and arches, rugged cliffs and canyons along the Waterpocket Fold, which forms a reef the length of the park. In the most scenic sections of the park, white sandstone cliffs with brilliant white dome formations dot the landscape. Most of the roads are unpaved and the Cayman balked at driving down them, so we hiked a few. We wanted to hike the Hickman Bridge Trail, but we never found the trailhead. However, we found trails leading to the 1000 3000 year old petroglyphs. Good thing we had our binoculars. They were really cool. There is one road through the park, Scenic Byway 24 and it is aptly named because of the incredible views.

We left Torrey, Utah and Capitol Reef NP and continued east to Moab, Utah. We had an AirB&B for 4 nights to use as home base for Canyonlands and Arches. But first we stopped at Goblin Valley State Park in Green River, Utah to visit the goblins or hoodoos, thousands of hoodoos. It is not very large, only 3 square miles, but this State Park is filled with these goblins. Hiking trails let you walk among them. After an hour or so, it was off to Moab.

We checked into our AirB&B in the late afternoon on Wednesday. The place was very new, very modern and very nice. A beautiful pool with two hot tubs awaited. So did the grills for dinner. We welcomed the opportunity to cook our meals so we stopped in town to do grocery shopping.

Arches was the only National Park in the Mighty 5 that required a timed entry. Ours was Friday noon, so we entered Canyonlands on Thursday. We took scenic drives through the Island in the Sky district. Spectacular overviews. The eroded landscape that turned into magnificent canyons, mesas, and buttes were breathtaking. By mid afternoon, I thought I heard the pool calling us, so we headed back to the condo in Moab.

We queued up at the Arches entrance just before noon. Fortunately, it was not very crowded. As we drove through, thousands of arches, and hoodoos and balanced rocks were impressive. The balanced rocks were so awesome. We didn’t hike the 3 mile round trip to the world famous Delicate Arch as the temps were pushing 105+. But we did hike to the Landscape Arch, the longest in the world at 290 feet. There were many other short distance hikes and we did a couple, but it was just too hot, so we drove the Arches Scenic Drive and stopped at various viewpoints along the way. These viewpoints have short hikes making it tolerable in the afternoon heat. By this time in the day, the crowds had thinned out and parking at these viewpoints was now available.

While in Moab, we visited the historic Dead Horse Point State Park. There are miles of hiking trails around the rim of this desert plateau and the views of the Colorado River Canyon and Canyonlands are phenomenal. As beautiful as the Grand Canyon.

As we wrap up the Mighty 5 in southern Utah, we reflected on the diversity and enormity of the landscapes from the canyons to the hoodoos to the arches and balanced rocks. This was an awesome travel experience.

We left Moab for Treffen in Bend, Oregon on Sunday morning in the rain. This is the first rain we had and we both wondered how the painter’s tape would hold up to the 80 MPH speed limit, well maybe there were times we went faster. The answer, surprisingly well. The tape will make it to Treffen, I concluded.

Salt Lake City was our next stop. Then Boise. On Tuesday, one day before the start of Treffen we rolled into Bend and checked in at the Sunriver Resort. And it is smoky again and definitely worse than Yosemite. The sun appeared as a big orange ball in the sky, which made for very colorful sunsets. After settling into our room, we started tackling the very dirty car. It was off with the tape, which is much easier than putting it on! Then a deep clean and shine. We both agreed to not tape the car during Treffen so we were ready to begin touring the gorgeous Oregon Cascades tomorrow.

Our first tour took us south to Crater Lake National Park, a stunning caldera lake. Fortunately, the smoke cleared the further south we drove, so we had a beautiful day. Our friends Patrick and Susan Nicola from Annapolis joined us on this day trip.

Our second tour took us along the McKenzie Pass and the Santiam Pass Scenic Byway in the Cascades. These were absolutely the best Pcar roads we traveled since the trip began.

Our third tour took us to Smith Rock State Park with its scenic views and deep river canyons. We were delighted to again have Patrick and Susan along for the drive. Smith Rock is home to some serious rock climbers. There are 14 different rock climbing areas and over 1800 climbing routes and it is one of the premier rock climbing destinations in America. This was a half day tour and we were back in Bend in time for lunch at a local favorite brew pub. There is no shortage of craft breweries in Bend. There are over 30 on the Ale Trail.

When we returned from the Saturday touring and lunch, we started the blue paint protection film application and prepped for the beginning of phase 2 of our cross country road trip. We finished the taping just in time to enjoy our final group Treffen dinner.

This concludes the first three weeks of our trip. Part 2, weeks 4 6, will appear in next month’s Patter.

By:Steve&MarshaBuss